Details of the Australian government’s arrangement to use controversial phone-cracking technology remains unclear.
Services Australia has rejected a senator’s request to disclose its contract with Cellebrite for the company to provide technology to help prevent criminal activity. Cellebrite, an Israeli digital intelligence company, is best known for its controversial phone-cracking technology, which it previously claimed could download most data from almost any device on behalf of government agencies. During Senate Estimates in October, Greens Senator Janet Rice had asked Services Australia various questions about the agency’s decision to procure vendor services from Cellebrite, with a request to see a copy of the Cellebrite contract being among them. Services Australia at the time took that request on notice. Rice had also asked about the scope of Services Australia’s usage of the Cellebrite technology, which Services Australia acting-deputy CEO of payments and integrity Chris Birrer said has only been used in fraud and identity theft cases, such as when people have falsely claimed the government disaster relief payments, uploaded false information to commit fraud, and stolen the identities of actual customers to hijack payments. Birrer added that his agency does not deploy these capabilities in relation to any general payment accuracy compliance activities. In providing a response to Rice’s request for the Cellebrite to be disclosed, Services Australia said disclosure of the requested documents would be contrary to the public interest as it would prejudice its criminal intelligence and investigation functions, and not be consistent with the agency’s commercial interests.
